Investigators: Bats used in DeLand beating massacre found

The Associated Press

Published Saturday, August 14, 2004

DELAND -- Detectives have recovered the four bats they believe were used to brutally beat to death six people in a Deltona home last week, supposedly in a dispute over a video game system and clothes, officials said Friday.

A dive team from the Volusia County Sheriff's Office found the bats Wednesday in a retention pond in Debary, several miles west of the house where the bodies were found.

Two of the bats were found in the water and two others were found in undergrowth along the edge of the retention pond.

The sheriff's office refused to offer any further information on how the bats were found.

Troy Victorino, the suspected ringleader, and three teenage co-defendants, Robert Cannon, Jerone Hunter, and Michael Salas, were arrested on first-degree murder and armed burglary charges.

Police said the killings were the culmination of an argument between Victorino and one of the victims, Erin Belanger, 22.

Authorities say the source of the dispute was an Xbox video game system and clothes owned by Victorino. Belanger's grandparents own a Florida winter home that was supposed to be vacant this summer, but police said Victorino and other squatters used it in July as a party spot.

The squatters were kicked out, but the Xbox and clothes were left behind. Since Victorino had been jailed, Belanger gathered the items up and took them back to the three-bedroom rental home she shared with friends. He was released days before the attack.